Art History Puzzles

Participants in Intro to Art Ed 15500 engaged in an ice breaker activity

We have been exploring various ice breaker activities in Intro to Art Education that can be used in the classroom. Puzzles are a great ice breaker because they are a fun, visual and a wonderful community builder. This week we were looking at modern and contemporary artists, and asking – how can we bring artists into the classroom? Participants were given a puzzle to piece together. The images were created by Romare Bearden, Marcel Duchamp, Frida Kahlo and Henri Matisse, to name a few.

Once the puzzles were complete, participants were given a set of questions: Who is the artist? What do you notice in the picture? What is the artwork about? Does it remind you of anything?

Participants then discussed their findings in teams and shared back.

This ice breaker activity can be used to explore any theme from social justice activists, historical events and art!

The main take aways were:

“Puzzle making immediately got me engaged and wondering who made this?”

“We worked together well and because we had a time limit we couldn’t think about it too much.”

“I can see using this ice breaker in a classroom as an intro to a project idea.”

“Puzzles are a fun accessible way to engage in the creative learning process.”